nph

I indadvertedly left the garage door open last night and around 6AM it went down to to 30 outside.
I have a buch of bananas on just bare roots and stem, several sensitive plants such as Hibiscus, Bird of Paradise, 2 orange trees, a Queen palm, a fox tail palm and a plumeria and numerous banana plants in pots stored in my garage over winter. Yes, as my wife can testify to we can barely get to the cars due to all the plants.

My garage is a two car garage and fortunately only one port was open but still I doubt it was anywhere beyond a degree or two above what it was outside. For sure my house leaks some heat into the garage but still.

I am really concerned, have I lost all the plants I put in there to save them over winter because of my stupidity and not closing the door as I should or do I stand a chance given that fact it was just one out of two doors open and the night wasn't that cold...?

Appreciate all honest opinions!


Thanks

Peter

pitangadiego

Do not do that again. Beyond that, what is done is done, and only time will tell what the ramifications are.

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nph

Trust me I won't, but any idea if the plants can take the one night? Also since the Citrus and palms were further in the garage are they better off?
Shoot, I "chose" a bad night, had it been this night it would have stayed above freezing...

JP

I'm pretty sure you'll be fine. You're gonna lose some leaves but it should be fine.

siege2050

Maybe a little damage, probably be okay. Stuff in my greenhouse is much hardier as long as frost does not actually settle on the leaves, and I suspect some of it could go down into the upper 20's without damage. I have had cannas in there down to 27 with minimal burn, frost is what you dont want to happen.

__________________

CountryBoy1981

The citrus and the palms should be more than fine.

nph

Thanks for all the input. I feel better now...

chipboy44

Hello there.... there is little to worry about.... The queen palms here have tested safe down to 23° SAFELY... Also safe will be the hibiscus, bird and even the orange trees. They have also made is safely thru those same temps here in central florida. But as for the poor banana possibly laying there bare root with fruit..... I did not hear about any leaves..... Although I do not know all of the particulares of this poor banana plant. If there are no leaves and I doubt that there will be any to survive thru this winter in that situation, I think that I would cut off the fruit, hope it is matured enough to have the fruit to ripen, and save the corm for the spring and hope for a few new suckers. Even if there were leaves on the tree, a bunch of fruit REQUIRE a minimum of 6 leaves to mature fruit and being in the garage not in the ground and not producing food for the plant in the sun, it is hopeless to pray for anything more than suckers in the spring. I am sorry to not have any better news for you. But all of the other plants you spoke of all did GREAT here in my yard in Daytona Beach a few years ago when we got a 101 year record breaking temp of 23°. My tropical and bananas didn't fare so well but all of the others you have can take that cold easily.
Salute'
rick

nph

Thanks for the info but my bananas do not have fruit. They are actually p-stem only standing up on the root bawls leaning against the walls of the garage.
Hopefully even the ones close the door (open) one will be ok since it got down to 30 only for a few hours.

mm4birds

If it didn't become mush there is always hope

sib

I left my potted Meyer Lemon trees out one night and it was a lot colder than I thought it would be around 28 degrees. They both survived just fine. Didn't even loose leaves because they are under the eaves of the house. I keep mine outside as much as I can in the winter because they don't like being in the garage all winter long and usually let me know by dropping all their leaves comes Feb/March. I have fluorescent lighting in the garage and my bananas do fine out there all winter but not the citrus. If it is above 35 during the day they are outside if it freezes at night I put them in the garage. We have mild weather here in WA state so they spent most of the year outside under the eaves on our deck that way they don't get rained on because we have very wet winters and citrus don't like constant watering.
Sib

sib

Forgot to mention of course in the Summer the citrus are in full sun because they love lots of sun!
Sib